Or as I like to call it, "How James Franco destroyed the world". I hate James Franco. I have never liked him in any role he has ever done and this was no exception. Fortunately, he can be safely ignored to focus on the movie's more awesome parts.
In this prequel, a doctor (James Franco) is working on a cure for Alzheimer's to help his father (John Lithgow) suffering from the disease. The chimp he is testing seems to be showing miraculous results until she goes crazy and gets shot in the lab. They find that the reason for her outburst was a protective maternal instinct. Seeing that the baby chimp displays the curious green irises known to be a side effect of the drug, the doctor takes him home and raises him. Caesar (Andy Serkis) is indeed smarter than other apes. Unfortunately, he is smart enough to realize the inherent inequality in his position, especially after he attacks a neighbor that was threatening his foster grandfather. He is put in chimp jail (a housing center for captured apes, since it is generally illegal to have them) where he is brutalized by the head chimp and also by one of the workers (Tom Felton, the Draco kid from Harry Potter). Disillusioned and filled with growing rage, Caesar uses his superior intelligence to reverse his circumstances and lead his people out of oppression.
I was pleased with the small references they made to the earlier films and by the general scope and tone. It does make you feel a bit of a species traitor since by the end you're actively rooting for the apes but I can get over that. Overall, this was a solid film and I would definitely recommend it to someone.
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